– Get better soon Sopi!
– I’m more or less back to full speed. Look for new strips next week. I have a new doctor and my ongoing medical condition is under control. Thank you all for all the support these last few weeks. I appreciate it.
– The last few weeks I’ve been looking hard at Patreon. It’s a crowd funding site focusing on patronage. If you’re not familiar with the site they have a great video on their front page that explains the whole thing. The site allows users to support artists they like through direct patronage, giving a set amount each time I create new content. For example, if you like Modest Medusa and want to give it some support (and you totally don’t have to!) you can choose to contribute a dollar for every month of comics I do. or 50 cents. Or 10 bucks. The money goes to me at the end of the month. Now I’ll be doing this comic no matter what, even if no one contributes, and it’ll always be free to everyone. That’s important. But extra money from Patreon means I’ll have more time to spend working on comics. It’ll allow me to do more small projects like the 24 hour comics and the Squid comic, and more big stuff like Ghost Kiss or Animal Crime. More Medusa comics as well. It’ll also give me time to do stuff like live draw and google+ hang outs. Plus I could get rid of the ads on the site. Anyway, that’s the idea. I’ve talked about this a little bit on Facebook and Google+ this week, but I’d like to hear what the rest of you think.
This would be separate from kickstarter, where Kickstarter is specifically about getting books printed. Patreon would be about making Modest Medusa (and other comics) a sustainable thing that I could continue to do for years. And again, it’s important to note that this would be for people who want to support Modest Medusa in this way. I’m not entitled to support at all and I don’t expect it, but I always appreciate it. A lot of you support the comic by buying books, doing fan art, spreading links or supporting my kickstarter projects. I don’t want any of you to feel obligated to support my work through Patreon. It’ll be there for people who are interested.
Okay, so listen to this part: Right now Jonathan Rosenberg (of Scenes from a Multiverse) is asking his readers to give $X per month of comics he does. That means that each of his patrons ha agreed to give him X amount of dollars every month, as long as he makes a month worth of comics. Patrons can choose how much they want to give. One might choose to give $1 for a month of comics, while another might choose $50. If Jonathan skips a month, no one gives him any money. That’s how it works.
Right now Kenno Arkkan (of My Life With Fel) is doing the same thing, except he’s asking his patrons to give for each page/strip he posts. So instead of giving for a full month of comics, his patrons are giving per strip. His patrons can choose to give 10 cents a strip, or 10 bucks a strip. I have no idea how often Kenno posts his comic, but patrons can also set a cap on how much they give each month. That way, if Kenno decides to post 70 more strips one month than he normally does, his patrons aren’t stuck spending a lot more than they thought they would. Also, patrons are only billed once a month, no matter how many times the artist provides new content.
So here’s the question: I’m trying to decide which of these two methods is better. Per Month or Per Page? What do you guys think? Also, if you look at the site you’ll see that several artists offer small rewards for higher levels of patronage. I don’t want this to be the kind of thing where only people who pay can get access to extra content, but I’m thinking that stuff like invitations to monthly Google+ hangouts, live draw events or sketches might be cool incentives. I’m open to suggestions. Similarly, if you look at the site you’ll see lots of stretch goals. Stuff like “If we bring in this much a month I’ll do this”. Again, I’m open to ideas.
– Jake
while college prevents me from taking part, I would vote for the per page option because that creates a positive feedback loop of comics money and joy.
If it works better then a “Tip Jar” Paypal i’d be up for it. I might not have alot of money each month but some here and there would help. Just would want to make sure if i donate ten dollars I don’t get charged eleven for the transaction fee or to “test” if my credit card is legitimate {thats what caused me problems with the first kickstarter one measely dollar.} Either that or i’ll just have to check and see if i have 11 on my card when I want to donate ten.
Also this comic reminds me of Markiplier’s let’s play surgeon simulator 2013
I’m curious about that as well, and I’ll be researching this before I do it so I can answer exactly those kinds of questions.
Ooh Additional Idea!
You do your program page or monthly and take pay.
But you also have an “installment plan” You know how in the kickstarter you have a cameo with reserved slots for a few hundred dollars? lets say 500 dollars during a kickstarter to reserve a cameo in the plot. then people could put donations of five and ten here and there over time and if they hit say a thousand bucks they can become filler characters.
That’s neat. I like that. I bet that could be done pretty easily.
She forgot to put a surgical mask on the one snake that needed it the most.
Jake I had some ideas for stretch goals. But I can’t think of a good way to say one of them
I personally prefer flattr ( http://flattr.com/ ) they take a slightly higher cut (10% for flattr vs 8% for patreon) but make it easy to have a fixed budget that is divided among all the web content I like – so I don’t have to manually adjust giving to stay within budget if I start to follow a new comic or stop reading an old one.
So, could you add a flattr button too?
I’ll look into it. thanks for the suggestion.
I wonder if that particular hair-snake will end up becoming the dominant snake when Modest grows older.
g.gif is confusing me so much. Why is it there? Juuust where I notice it when I read your blog post. How many pixels is that little guy? 6×5? What the heck. I’m so tired and confused. Does it do anything?! Is it part of your info block thing? I just want to interact with it but it just stares…
Where is it?
To the right of the blog post, under the little copyright text thing.
I totally can’t find it.
It’s something used by a WordPress plugin to gather various stats from visitors.
This is great news Jake. Thanks for the update–and the new comic 🙂
I’mma say it anyway. Jake one of the stretch goals you should have is to get healthier. I’m a big guy too and I know it’s not good for your health especially when compounded with your other health problems..
Hmm… that’s funny, but maybe that’s actually a good incentive. I mean, I’ve made some really big changes in the last 2 weeks. I’m walking to and from work every day (which is 1.3 miles each way), seeing a doctor regularly, eating pretty healthy and cutting surgery drinks from my daily diet altogether. That’s all helped a lot. I can feel the change already, and I’ve lost some weight. I have other plans as well. This is just a start. But I worry that I won’t keep this stuff up.
Keep walking! Bring your 3DS with you while walking! Join the Million step club!
I know I walk most places in town (of course, I don’t own a car either), do the mile to school most days, the couple miles to the Doctor’s office or the local game store… it helps I live in a small town though; nothing is further than 6 miles away, so at most I’d be walking 90 minutes to get there. We do have some pretty crappy hills, though, and since it’s high altitude (and I’m used to living at or below sea level) I sometimes get winded too easily.
Anyway, even just walking helps a lot… as long as you keep it up. My friends used to think I was crazy walking to the local 7 Eleven when I was younger, and would offer me rides (I had a truck back then, but Eleven was only two miles away), but I actually like walking. It lets me think and is one of the few times I actually listen to music.
I kinda miss living in a somewhat citified area; no more is there a local 7 Eleven or Circle K to walk to if I should want a Slurpee, and no more sandwich shops to go to nab something quick to eat. =Þ
I am rambling far too much, but keep walking, Jake! Bring your 3DS, don’t be lazy and shake it to get your play coins (doesn’t the new Pokémon use them?)
I walk everywhere. My entire life is basically in a 2 mile radius of my home. But since last summer I’ve been slacking off and I got in the habit of taking the bus. But I’m back to walking now and even though it’s cold I’m enjoying it.
Well, it depends on a lot of things whether monthly or per-page payments are better. If you’re able to keep up 3 a week (so roughly 12 a month) that’s a pretty nice inflow.
But if something came up, like conventions or family emergencies, and your updates fell behind a little because of that, monthly would be better.
But this is also assuming that MM is your only webcomic. If you were to start doing another webcomic (like, say, Ghost Kiss), then your per-page income would be even higher, making it the better choice overall. Especially since if you miss a couple of updates on one comic but don’t miss on the other, you’re still making something (as opposed to having one webcomic and missing a few updates).
But these are just my thoughts on the matter. I’m sure there’s other stuff to consider that only you would/could think of.
You should have SPLEEN what she did in the room across the hall.
Wow, you seem to be doing quite well for yourself. That’s Great! 🙂
I’m really glad Modest is not my doctor though! :/
I’d personally be more comfortable per page.
I understand that life happens and stuff. And that your comics aren’t made to far in advance.
But for instance with December there weren’t very many comics to speak of because you’ve been sick a lot. So I’d rather pay for content than on a weekly basis.
When I first got to the convention I was an hour early. Due to this I vastly understimated what I was going to see. After all my city is so small we don’t get real cons. Heck this one didn’t even have Voice actors. So who would show up? A couple of neckbeards like me I figured. But I figured wrong. So very very wrong. As soon as the marketplace opened I poured in with my mother on her walker. The market place had multiple vendor stalls. They sold Jpop, headgear, japanese snacks and ramune {whoever thought “Lets put a glass ball that keeps interrupting the drinker” should be punched} figurines, hats so many hats, tshirts, placemats, etc. They had a surprising lack of DvDs or Manga. In fact the only dvd’s and manga looked much akin to something you’d find at a yard sale 4 random books and 3 random dvds. But they also had a wii set up with super smash brothers brawl. a n64 with the original. And what I presume was a kinect with some sort of dancing game. I watched Eleanor Lamb in big sister armor do the YMCA with Goku. I shook hands with Slenderman and Deadpool. I watched a buttload of animes in japanese most of which I couldnt tell you much about. An android name monochrome? An otaku whose hired to export anime to a medevil kingdom? Gallileo sisters? Girls who are battleships? Samurai flamenco? Weird stuff. And I capped it all with a lunch from arbys of curly fries and a reuben sandwich.
Sounds great!
Yeah, Paul Taylor of Wapsi Square fame is also doing the per month thing. I decided to pitch in to see what it’s like.
Per strip payments sound good, and I enjoy this strip enough to do it.
As to your health, do what the doctor says, forever! My cardiologist says (after 16 years) I’m his best patient! Others spend the equivalent of an expensive car getting fixed and go back to double cheese burgers and stuff.
Try to be able to say the same in a few years?
That’s my plan!
And this is why Medusa shouldn’t be a surgeon. XD Glad that organ isn’t important.
So… in the first panel, the top left snake-hair has a mask on, and the bottom left does not. But in the third panel, the top left snake-hair (which previously was masked) is eating the appendix… o.O
Also, it looks like a strawberry to me.